Archive for April, 2010

The dorado have arrived finally!The water is slowly warming up and the fish are moving in. Most of the dorado will be small until the water warms into the mid-70’s. There are striped marlin around, but getting them to bite when the water is cool is not always easy. Our friends did catch one on the reef last week on a skirted ballyhoo. A few more degrees and we’ll start to see some sailfish. We’ll all be hoping that some tuna start to move in.
We made it to the Island several times last week averaging 4-5 fish a trip, losing plenty to the rocks. We found the fish in several places around the Island, so moving around may pay off. We were surprised one day with a couple small bonita, and the other with three large red snapper. In close there are some sierra, skipjack , cabrilla, and pargo biting.

Still some nice fish biting at the Island. Bait is getting hard to find and the action for the pangas has slowed down. We have still had three days with 4-5 fish though. Found a couple small bonita at the Island which made for some good sushi. One 22# dorado was caught, but just peanuts and cold marlin so far. Some decent cabrilla and pargo are being caught at the Island. Will be back out this weekend.

Team Margarita has had 3 days in a row of outstanding YT fishing at San Pedro. Almost every fish is in the 20-25 pound range and they are great fighters, particularly if we hook them with jigging rods. We’ve been using some live bait as well as the newer “butterfly” jigs and and the fish seem to take either offering. Patience is key since we’ve had a couple of hours where nothing is happening…and then the school moves through and we have multiple hookups. Unfortunately, the pangeros still outfish us with handlines instead of our high tech gear.

Here are a couple of pictures from Saturday, with smiling Arturo and a new (to San Carlos) angler, Dick, from the Scottdale area. We hope to see him back again in our little paradise.

The crowds have left but the fish sure haven’t. If you haven’t noticed all the sealife around then you need to get out to the beach. I must have seen five hundred turns today screeching as loud as the Semana Santa crowd in the estuary. They are enjoying their Spring. In-between their mating rituals they are finding lots of baitfish to keep their energy up. The bay is full of huge amounts of baby sardines. Expect all the big ones to be right behind this yearly event!

We made it to San Pedro a few days ago for an epic yellowtail bite. Our new friend who had married a girl from Hermosillo brought his father and brother-in-law along. He lost the first fish to the rocks, but the old man pulled out the strength to get the next one. After losing a few more fish, the young guys started winning a few battles. The father lasted for one more fish before the boys started hooking up two at time. I think he won major points with the family! It was great to finally start catching fish jigging. The fish were all around 20# and were readily taking live bait and jigs. Expect a few more great weeks of yellowtail fishing before they begin the spawn on the next full moon. I’ve heard reports of the pangas catching fish to 50#. They get big in the Spring.

This cooler is about 44 inches in length!

Tim , Bryan, and Capt. Arturo working his fillet knife…..

Todays satellite shots show incredibly warm water on the way. Confirming that are reports of 69-71 degree water out front and pictures of marlin on the surface. A few boats have seen them lately. Expect the dorado to show up in the next few days possibly. They might not be big at first, but they are on their way. I was told of a tuna boat that caught fish up North in cold water, so they too could show very soon. Maybe we’ll ‘summer fishing’ by next week. I know that I’ll be getting ready.

Lots of great inshore action around. Small and larger sierras are around. The small yellowtail have been showing up sporadically at San Antonio. Lots of small skipjack are coming in on the Miramar side of the bay. All the pargo, cabrilla, and other bottomfish should turn on soon. Big grouper will also be coming in shallow to spawn. Get out on the boat to see all the great sealife that shows up in our warmer cooler waters. I saw a nice mako the other day and a muge manta ray at the Island. The whales should be coming by soon.